Tablets soaring, notebooks growing, desktops static, netbooks falling, says IC Insights.

Unit shipments of tablets between 2009-14 will grow 190%, notebook shipments will grow 15%, netbook units will fall 17% and desktops will grow 2%, according to a new report from IC Insights.

Across all the personal computer categories (including tablets), units grew 19%  last year and will, in 2011, rise another 13% to reach 402m.

49m tablets are expected to be sold this year up 190% from last year’s 17m.

Lumping together all the portable computer categories, the surge in tablets and a 14% increase in sales of standard notebook computers (to reach 182m units in 2011) is expected to drive up total portable PC shipments by 23% to 250m  worldwide this year, following 30% growth in 2010.

Portable computers of all types are forecast to account for 62% of worldwide PC shipments in 2011, compared to 58% of the total in 2010 and just 31% in 2005.

Tablet computer units are forecast to climb at a CAGR of 152% in the 2009-2014 period reaching 132m units in the next four years.

Netbook shipments are expected to fall by a 17% CAGR to 10m units i2009-14 n 2014 from 26 million units in 2009.

Standard notebook PCs are projected to grow at an average annual rate of 15% per year 2009-14 to 260m in the five-year period.

Desktop computers are forecast to have a 2% CAGR 2009-14 with unit sales reaching 155m in 2014.

The shift to mobile personal computers continues to gain strength, and IC Insights now expects 72% of PCs sold in 2014 to be portable systems, with tablets accounting for 24% of the projected 557m units sold that year—up from 5% of the 355m PCs sold in 2010.

'Netbook computers are in  in a tailspin after briefly being the “hottest new thing” in the PC market in 2008 and 2009,' says IC Insights. 

IC Insights continues to see tablets as being part of the broader PC market because these systems are designed to handle many of the most popular personal-computing applications, such as Internet Web browsing, email, video downloading, access to online publications, computer games, digital photos, and social networking.

While most of today’s touch-screen tablets are best suited for accessing and viewing digital content, their use in content creation is increasing. It won’t be long before new hardware designs and software enhancements bring tablet and notebook capabilities much closer together.